Abstract
The majority of studies on the effects of wind energy development on wildlife have been focused on birds and bats, whereas knowledge of the response of terrestrial, non-flying vertebrates is very scarce. In this paper, the impact of three functioning wind farms on terrestrial small mammal communities (rodents and shrews) and the population parameters of the most abundant species were studied. The study was carried out in southeastern Poland within the foothills of the Outer Western Carpathians. Small mammals were captured at 12 sites around wind turbines and at 12 control sites. In total, from 1200 trap-days, 885 individuals of 14 studied mammal species were captured. There was no difference in the characteristics of communities of small mammals near wind turbines and within control sites; i.e. these types of sites were inhabited by a similar number of species of similar abundance, similar species composition, species diversity (H′ index) and species evenness (J′) (Pielou’s index). For the two species with the highest proportion in the communities (Apodemus agrarius and Microtus arvalis), the parameters of their populations (mean body mass, sex ratio, the proportion of adult individuals and the proportion of reproductive female) were analysed. In both species, none of the analysed parameters differed significantly between sites in the vicinity of turbines and control sites. For future studies on the impact of wind turbines on small terrestrial mammals in different geographical areas and different species communities, we recommend the method of paired ‘turbine-control sites’ as appropriate for animal species with pronounced fluctuations in population numbers.
Highlights
Wind power is becoming increasingly important as a power supply in a growing number of countries
The species richness of small mammals found at the wind turbine and control sites was 12 and 11 species respectively
A positive impact can be considered, because wind farm may reduce the occurrence of birds of prey (Pearce-Higgins et al 2009), and in consequence small mammals living near the turbines may be under less pressure from avian predators
Summary
Wind power is becoming increasingly important as a power supply in a growing number of countries. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the global wind power capacity was 17 GW, and in 2013, it increased to 318 GW (REN21 2014). The promotion of this renewable source for electricity production is a priority in the energy policy of many countries (Karydis 2013; Mann and Teilmann 2013). In the European Union (EU), the operating capacity was able to cover nearly 8 % of total electricity consumption (in 2013), and several EU countries met higher shares of their energy demand with wind power, e.g. up to 20.9 % in Spain and 33.2 % in Denmark (REN21 2014).
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